Thursday 19th March '09

Today I woke and saw the sun shining outside so I finally got around to slicing the roma tomatoes I'd bought a few days ago and placing them outside to start drying. They had red and orange roma tomatoes on sale at Coles. A nice surprise!

After setting up the tomatoes outside, I watered my plants and couldn't help but pause for a moment and see how well they're doing. I think being under the shade has encouraged them to grow better than when they were out in the direct sun all day.

Lunch
Ham, Rocket & Tomato Wrap

Tonight was so busy at work. I managed to steal five minutes to scoff down dinner that Andrea had made for me.

Dinner
Andrea's Seafood Paella

Oh my gosh this was so yummy!! Andrea had told me she was going to make it and I was already looking forward to the seafood and saffron rice. There was a plethora of seafood amongst the rice - I wish I could have taken my time to enjoy it more.

Nevermind...the second I had finished it, the cute theatre orderly that I've spotted in the last few weeks came into the tea room. At first I thought perhaps it was the after hours receptionist coming in to say goodnight to me since it was just after 9pm. But no...it was him! I was so nervous I couldn't even look at him...he made a few attempts to talk to me but my answers were short and I was so flustered, I almost tripped over him trying to get back to the lab with him in tow. I had to open the lab door with my swipe card, and I held the door open while he walked through...so close! Makes me sigh and grin at the same time just remembering those awkward moments. He is damn cute. Seeing him made my night though.

Supper
Mum's Ox Tail Stew with Spaghetti

Wednesday 18th March '09

Before work, I went outside to water my plants and I picked some rocket and horned mustard. I love having fresh veggies ready for the picking!

Lunch
Spaghetti Marinara

I started with a generous amount of olive oil in the pan and fried some crushed garlic and chilli in it for a few minutes before adding adding the tomatoes from a can. I didn’t want the sauce to be runny, so I only took the tomatoes out of the can and cut them into smaller pieces, rather than pour all the contents of the can into the pan. After simmering for several minutes, I added the seafood – mussels, clams and prawns. When the sauce was ready, I threw in some spaghetti cooked al dente, and some fresh basil leaves at the last minute before serving.

Dinner at Home
Spaghetti Marinara

Yes, I had the rest of the pasta for supper when I got home. With lots of grated pecorino and fresh cut chillies. Oh – and a glass of red wine. Devil’s Lair 5th Leg blend.

Deliciously rich tomato sauce – I love love love my seafood!!

Tuesday 17th March '09

Tonight after work I set about making lasagne.

Alas! I didn’t have any béchamel sauce. I didn’t want to make my own from scratch. The last time I did that, it burnt and my second attempt was no better. I need to get a small heavy set iron pot to try again, I reckon. Using a steel pot doesn’t seem to work.

So, without béchamel sauce, it was more of an eggplant and pasta bake. I made the bolognaise sauce as usual, but this time I used my stick master and pureed it. In a large baking dish, I layered slices of eggplant, lasagne pasta sheets, sliced zucchini, the bolognaise sauce and some grated cheese.


Meanwhile, I hastily made dinner for myself. Mum had made some bee hoon soup for Christina and Jocelyn, so I used the remaining soup to make some for myself. I added some prawns and veg and it was ready in no tome. By the time I managed to sit down to eat, I could feel the onset of a hypoglycaemic attack. Me need food!

Bee Hoon soup with Pork Mince Dumplings & Prawns

When my eggplant pasta bake was done, I couldn’t resist having some. Nice and warm straight out of the oven!

Monday 16th March '09

Lunch
Cajun Chicken & Salad Wrap

Salad leaves, fresh tomato, grated carrot, whole egg mayonnaise and cajun chicken.

I put together some chicken kebabs a few weeks ago and froze them individually so that whenever I wanted to have a wrap, I could take one kebab out, defrost it overnight, then bake it in the oven and make a wrap. How easy is that!?

Sunday 15th March '09

I had plans to take Simba to the dog beach with Noel, Fleurette and Spectra today, but alas, even though I set my alarm for 9:30am, I did the calculations in my head and knew I didn’t have time to make all the preparations necessary so that I could go straight from the beach to the BBQ I had at noon.

I packed up the portable BBQ, some last minute foods and headed off to Benoit and Ivy’s place. It was forecast to be 37C today and when I got there, I certainly felt it. We set up the BBQ outside and when Dau arrived, we started cooking. I mean, he started cooking.

”I...am the greatest BBQ chef there is.
I cook from the heart. The heart, man. The heart.”

Inside, I prepared the potato salad. Ivy said she was craving some potato salad, so I picked up ingredients for it at the shops the other day. I haven’t made potato salad for a while. I got stuck when it came to choosing the salad dressing. At the last minute, I remembered the really delicious mustard dressing I’ve made on several occasions (not of late) and hunted around the house to grab what I’d need.

The potatoes were boiled, sliced thickly and thrown into a large bowl – skin and all. I roughly chopped some bacon and fried this in a pan. Once nicely done, I added the bacon to the bowl of potatoes and some sliced boiled eggs (which I’d boiled last night and put in the fridge overnight). To the renderings in the pan, I added some white wine vinegar (and some regular vinegar because I didn’t have enough white wine vinegar), olive oil and honey mustard seeds from a jar. I let this mixture simmer for a few minutes and then poured it over the potatoes, bacon and egg. Throw on some cracked black pepper and freshly cut chives and voi la!

Warm Potato Salad with Mustard Vinagrette Dressing
sausages of different meats, beef patties and beef chunks

lots of yummy fried onion with the bacon rind I didn’t use in the salad

Ben’s salt water fish tank. Can you spot all the fish?
Click on the photo to enlarge. There are 8. I think...

gorgeous clown fish

We had a lazy afternoon and decided to all head home for dinner despite the lure of having KFC together.

Saturday 14th March '09

We rendevous’d at Benoit and Ivy’s place this evening, with plans to head out for dinner. I love checking out Benoit’s tanks whenever I’m there. His saltwater tank gets more vibrantly coloured every time I’m over.

He’s got a new anemone for the clown fish. Other fish must stay away or be paralysed by the toxins the anemone releases to subdue its prey. The clownfish are immune to it and use it as a means of protection from predators.

the clownfish and their anemone

We had reservations at Lido’s on William Street, Northbridge.



LIDO’S
We love this place. It’s brighter, more spacious and cleaner than Viet Hoa. The food is just as good, if not better. It’s our new favourite Vietnamese restaurant – with half those with this opinion being Vietnamese themselves.

Entrees

Stuffed Chicken Wings

Spring Rolls


Mains

Myself: Bun Bo Hue

Benoit: Beef Balls Noodle Soup

Ivy, Fee & Long: Broken Rice

I don’t remember what they had in their broken rice dish...was it pork? I was too hungry and had eyes only for my bowl of deliciously spicy pho.

After dinner, we headed to Burswood and us girls spent the night drinking and dancing, while the boys caught the soccer and lost money.

Supper in Northbridge
Deep Fried Squid
Century Egg & Pork Rice Porridge

While the guys played a mini-tournament of pool at Potblack, us girls went to get supper. It brought back memories of when I used to come out clubbing in Northbridge on the weekends and we’d stumble into one of the Chinese restaurants in Chinatown at around 3am to get food. Ah, those were the days. Sometimes I’d just grab a banana milk and spring roll from one of the kebab stores down James street. I know, it sounds gross now, but at the time that banana milk would be just what I craved!

Friday 13th March '09

Morning Tea
Andrea's Spicy Prawn Soup

Ooh this really hit the spot for me this morning when I went on my break. It was so spicy - just the way I like it! There were also lots of prawns in there too.

Being a Friday and in high spirits because our boss is away, we all decided to order pizza for lunch.

Lunch
Chelsea's 'the works' Pizzas

Marissa brought some pasta she'd made and I took it home for dinner. I am loving this food swap we've got going on at work!

Dinner
Marissa's Spaghetti Marinara

Ling and Shallen returned home from their trip today and as luck would have it, several of us were free to catch up for the night. I brought over some vol au vents for a snack.

I had cooked the prawns and scallops with garlic, onion and chilli in olive oil yesterday. I reheated this in a pan on the stove and then added a few good sized tablespoons of cream and let it simmer for a few minutes before scooping it into the vol au vent cases. A sprinkle of cheese over the top of each one and then into the oven until the cheese melted.

Vol au vents with Prawns & Scallops

They were awesome!! I was worried that the sauce would just run out of the pastry, but it actually was absorbed into the bottom of each case and it was like eating a deliciously flavoured biscuit when you got to the end. I'm going to have to buy the larger vol au vent cases and make them as a main course.

We spent the rest of the night on the Wii and downing Smirnoff Green Apple Vodka with soda water.

me passed out after an exhausting game of boxing